How to Create a More Inspiring Home Office
February 24, 2021
Lifestyle
With remote work quickly becoming the norm for more and more people, creating a space to work from home isn't just a luxury anymore. Whether you already have the office of your dreams and just want to give it a refresh or you're trying to carve out a dedicated workspace for the first time, a few simple design principles are all you need to make a space that inspires and motivates while reflecting your unique personality.
Creating a Dream Office
Unlike the standard dream of a mahogany-lined corner office from years past, the new dream office is personal, inspiring, motivating, comfortable, practical — and it might only be a few steps from a kitchen sink full of dishes. Of course, dreaming about your perfect workspace and putting those dreams into action are two very different things. So whether you're looking to spruce up a dedicated home office, or you just want to bring some order to the kitchen table you've been using as an inbox all year, here are some jumping off points to create the most inspiring home office space possible in 2021:Dedicate the Space
Depending on the kind of space you're working with, creating a dedicated workspace might be as simple as shutting the door when you get to work. It also may mean setting aside a corner or a nook in a room that serves multiple purposes, like a dining room. Either way, it's important to dedicate the space for your home office. Choose or create a spot that gives you everything you need, and take steps to draw clear boundaries between your work and your home life. In practice, this means considering how you like to work. Maybe you like to answer emails from your desk, but prefer reading articles from a cozy chair. In that case, your workspace should include both a desk and your favorite reading chair. Since all of the space is your own, it may not seem important to delineate your work space. However, blurred boundaries can quickly lead to answering emails after hours, or being tempted to nap while you're still on-call. Establishing clear boundaries will help keep your work at work, even if you no longer have a commute. If you don't have the space to dedicate an entire room to work, you can accomplish similar separation between your workspace and your home by demarcating your workspace with your desk, with a rug, or with creative lighting. For example, the edges of a rug can act as a visual and mental boundary between work and home, while a task or desk lamp that you only turn on during working hours can send a visual signal that it's time to get down to business. Experiment to see what visual signals help you remember the difference between go-time and downtime.Banish Clutter, Not Your Personality
No matter how much space you have to dedicate to your home office, try to pare back to the essentials. Fill your space with the things you absolutely need to have on-hand to get the job done, and get rid of distracting clutter. Take some time to think about how you like to work, and list what you need for a full and productive day. Once you have an idea of what your workspace essentials are, you can take the time to get personal. Contrary to popular belief, personal objects and other motivating items that you love aren't "clutter." A plant, a bulletin board with inspiring images or quotes, or even a fancy chandelier might be essentials for your workspace if they help you enter the right frame of mind to be productive. Ultimately, it might be that what feels like "clutter" is just visual information that lacks composition, meaning the design elements don't work together to form a cohesive, relaxing whole. If your job requires a lot of imagination and brainstorming, a visually "busy" workspace might be just what you need. Either way, take care that whatever you decide is a must-have is arranged in a way that inspires without overrunning your workspace.Engage Your Senses...and Your Sense of Style
Sight, smell, touch, sound, maybe even the taste of coffee; all of the senses participate in helping you get motivated to get work done. Studies show that institutional color schemes, like the grey or beige schemes of so many offices, actually promote feelings of sadness, which might make you less productive. With the freedom afforded by your work-from-home space, you can experiment with color theory and your own personal taste to arrive at the palette that puts you in the mood to get down to business. For starters, low-wavelength colors like blue and green tend to promote feelings of calm and serenity. High-wavelength colors like red and orange might actually raise your heart rate and promote energy. And sunshiney yellow tends to promote feelings of happiness. But don't stop with colors. A scented candle or an essential oil diffuser might be just the thing to signal you that it's time to work. Consider lemon, which might help improve concentration. Or maybe it's the all-important noise-canceling headphones that help you clear your mind and get down to business. A cozy rug in a fun pattern might be just the ticket for creating a boundary around your workspace, while also serving to keep your feet warm now that work has become shoes-optional.Create Inspiring Contrasts
Creating unique compositions through contrast might not seem like a crucial productivity booster, but more and more designers and architects are recognizing and instrumentalizing the ways interior design can elicit diverse emotional reactions. Thoughtfully curated colors, materials, and textures can make the difference between a workspace that sparks positivity and one that inspires drudgery. Even if you aren't an aspiring designer, you can invoke a few simple principles to take your space to the next level. As you reorganize and retool your workspace, consider choosing a theme, even if it's just a color, to give you a true north. Your theme can come from anywhere: the color palette of a favorite photo, a passion for the clean lines of modern furniture, or even something more abstract like "maritime" or "country cottage" can all be used as the basis of your theme. Once you've selected your theme, you can evaluate everything in your space through one simple principle: either an object is on-theme, or it presents a useful contrast to your theme. By looking at your space this way, even the least savvy interior designer can make an inspiring space by making one decision: high or low contrast. In a high-contrast space, you're looking to arrange objects of varying sizes, weights, colors, and textures. In a low-contrast space, you're looking to arrange objects with a common theme, usually a color. If you run into a roadblock, go back to contrast. For instance, three square frames on the wall might not pop the way you want them to. But if you throw in a few ovals and a mirror, it might suddenly become the focus point you've been dreaming about.Your Work, Your Space, Your Life
Whether it's now serving as a school, office, playground, or simply a safe space, our home has never been more important. We know this is as well as anyone. At Baird & Warner, Chicagoland has been our home since 1855. Looking for new ideas to make the most of your space in 2021? Ready to start the search for a new place to call home? Whatever your real estate goals may be, we get you — and we're here to help make things easier, at every step of the way.Tags:
